Arctic

From the HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR OCEAN RESEARCH KIEL (GEOMAR) and the soon to be defunct “Arctic Methane Emergency Group” comes this good news. Methane hydrate dissociation off Spitsbergen not caused by climate change Study identifies post-glacial processes as main reason Methane hydrates, also known as flammable ice, occur in many regions of the oceans. But…

From the “Arctic is screaming louder thanks to Mark Serreze and his adjustment shenanigans” department, I don’t think this is going to fly. Some of the adjustments are as much as 1.2 million square kilometers of sea ice, which is as much as some yearly variations. -Anthony Guest essay Tom Wiita I came across this…

From the UNIVERSITY OF UTAH and the “other factors besides CO2” department. In 1870, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, trekking across the barren and remote ice cap of Greenland, saw something most people wouldn’t expect in such an empty, inhospitable landscape: haze. Nordenskiöld’s record of the haze was among the first evidence that air pollution around the…

Guest essay by Michael Wallace, Hydrologist The prevailing model of seasonal and long term global ozone depletion is grounded in a principal assertion that emissions of industrial refrigerants and propellants (also known as Ozone Destroying Substances, ODSs) are the primary causal agents. I review that assertion from a perspective relating to my ongoing research of…

Arctic shows no sign of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades Despite relatively cool summer temperatures, observations in 2017 continue to indicate that the Arctic environmental system has reached a ‘new normal’, characterized by long-term losses in the extent and thickness of the sea ice cover, the extent and duration of the…

From the INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES and the “obvious science” department comes this stunning revelation. Arctic influences Eurasian weather and climate Over the past decades the Arctic has lost 65% of its sea ice volume. The atmosphere above the Arctic has been rapidly warming and moistening at the same time. What does…

Guest essay by Jim Steele Director emeritus Sierra Nevada Field Campus, San Francisco State University and author of Landscapes & Cycles: An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism I’m a longtime supporter of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). When properly abided by, it seeks to prevent extinctions and requires humanity to seek a win-win scenario where…